Step 8 • Application
Artwork: Sander de Knegt, Breda
Assemble and submit your portfolio application
For your urban area to become a member of the National Park City Family or an internationally recognised National Park City, you’ll need to submit a portfolio application.
This will be assessed by our assessors and peer reviewers. These will be a mixture of experts from other National Park Cities, the National Park City Foundation, World Urban Parks and Salzburg Global Seminar.
Our peer reviewers want to see that your urban area is ready and that your initiative is a suitable place and is visionary, inclusive, supported and capable.
You can find out more about how we review each portfolio on our peer review page.
Your application needs to be in a digital format, but can be a mixture of words, reports, photographs, video and other media. We recommend this is submitted as a publicly available website or publication. You could also submit it through a well-organised digital folder like a Dropbox which you share with us.
Preparing To Submit
Before submitting your portfolio application, you will need to have:
- Registered your campaign at nationalparkcity.org/register
- Created and secured support for your proposal
- Completed steps one to seven in the Journey Book
- Collected a wide range of evidence to demonstrate your initiative and urban area are ready to join the National Park City Family and added this to your portfolio
- When everything is ready, you can submit your application and portfolio through our members portal which you’ll be invited to after registration
Preparing To Submit
Before submitting your portfolio application, you will need to have:
- Registered your campaign at nationalparkcity.org/register
- Created and secured support for your proposal
- Completed steps one to seven in the Journey Book
- Collected a wide range of evidence to demonstrate your initiative and urban area are ready to join the National Park City Family and added this to your portfolio
- When everything is ready, you can submit your application and portfolio through our members portal which you’ll be invited to after registration
Five stages to the Application Process
Stage 1: Portfolio submission
Submission of a portfolio of evidence that demonstrates that the city is ready to become a National Park City.
Stage 2: Desk review
The assessment team will complete an initial desk review to ensure all documents are in place.
Stage 3: Peer review
Peers from established and emerging National Park Cities, as well as experts from the National Park City Foundation, World Urban Parks and Salzburg Global will review the initial application and provide feedback on where additional activity or evidence might be required against 23 National Park City criteria.
Stage 4: In-person visit and independent research
Representatives of the Peer Review team will visit the city to meet with community groups, members of the city government, civil society, and ordinary citizens. This will be supported with independent research to check the validity of the application and gather additional evidence, along with monitoring the media and social media.
Stage 5: Invitation
Following stages 1-4 being completed successfully, the National Park City Foundation in partnership with World Urban Parks and Salzburg Global will formally invite the City to agree to the National Park City commitments, join the family and become an established National Park City.
How we assess a city’s application
We’re not looking for perfect scores across the application. We want to hear about the ambitions, plans and progress of each candidate National Park City. Each peer reviewer will look at the overall approach each city is taking and will make an informed judgement on whether each urban area is ready to become a full National Park City.
Across the application portfolio, peer interviews and independent research, the assessment team will want to have seen enough evidence to be confident that the ‘right mix’ of criteria were sufficiently met.
To aid this process each of the peer review team will score each of the assessment criteria as either:
Green Evidence is present and satisfactory – Score 1
Orange More evidence or activity is required – Score 0.5
Red No evidence or Significant Concerns – Score 0
Reviewers will be looking for evidence that your initiative is suitable and ready. The examples of evidence in the table are not exhaustive. The scoring process is used to support conversations and decide where more evidence or activity may be required. It was also used to identify areas of concern.
We’re still a young movement and as more cities become National Park Cities, we’ll continue to provide more examples of learning and good practice. We welcome using a creative approach when you present your portfolio. This will largely be written, but could include photography, film, audio, virtual reality and art.
Our peer reviewers will look at the overall picture of what you are doing and make a professional judgement on whether your urban area is ready to join the National Park City Family.
Sign Up for our Newsletter
Sign up to find out how you can help make your city greener, healthier, and wilder and have some fun along the way.
Find ways to get involved, volunteer some time, or come along to one of our regular events.